GREAT (Needed) Break

 This last semester of school was probably my hardest yet. It was great and I learned a lot. A good friend in the cohort and I were able to evaluate a rubric for our teacher work sample next semester for the Professors. Unlucky for us, we are in the program at the hardest it has ever been - according to our professors. Over the years, the faculty has been adding and implementing more great ideas and we have received the most of it. So, they are trying to scale down. They asked us to email them our thoughts about the program. I guess only myself and my friend did because that is why we were asked to evaluate the rubric. It was a neat opportunity to be able to collaborate our ideas and thoughts to the wise Dr's. of the program.

I'm excited and nervous about student teaching. I have a unique situation, don't know whither it's a blessing in disguise or if I missed out on opportunities, but I have had the same adviser the past three semesters and this last semester I was placed in a 1st grade class from the same teacher as my first semester and I'm doing my student teaching there this next semester. So, unlike most in our program, I have only had one Professor (Dr. Matsubara) observe me teach in the schools and grade me, and I will have only been with two teachers from the school district in 1st and 3rd grade. Fortunately, the teacher I have been placed multiple times is awesome and we get along really well. She understands that I need to see other teaching styles and allows me to observe her whole team - which is awesome.

This next semester, starting on Monday, they are breaking our cohort up because there are some people who have deferred and so there will be about 37 of us and that is too much for one professor to take on to grade our work etc. I'm going to miss these guys so much. We all wish that we could open up our own school together :). My friend and I have a three year plan  - teach for three years and then start a masters! We will see how that turns out :). 

Red Cohort - Graduation Date of May 2012. Picture taken here because COLLEGE is soon to be long gone - University status is coming this summer.

 
Over this last semester all that really went on was school, homework, school, homework, and work, work, work. However, over Thanksgiving we painted the Frostop boy and the building. Everything is looking so spiffy - it's great!

Soooooo high up! We were at the top of the sign and didn't dare look down.

Bullet had been spreading office garbage all over the room while I'm gone because one day I left a candy wrapper in it. Anyways, I was soooo sick of garbage getting all over that I made him sit in the can. He listened very well and didn't get out until I told him to. He hasn't gotten into the garbage since. 

Christmas Break has been WONDERFUL! 


Five Christmas's ago, my parents gave us this moving thinking it looked good. We started watching it and turned it off after the first ten minutes because it was so lame. Anyways, they wouldn't take it back with them so I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to re-gift this sucker. I wrote Part II on the title and wrapped it. On Christmas Eve I told my parents I had a gift they needed to open because we could use it tonight. It was dark and so they really thought I had found Part II of The Winter Stallion. Brad and I were rolling on the ground laughing. They soon realized I had written it. I guess we should have finished Part I if they really made a Part II ;).

We brought Bullet up with us so Brad's sister didn't get stuck with him over Christmas. Brenner LOVED him.

Ping Pong wars! This year no lights were broken - hooray. On Christmas my dad got a dart board and so that was fun too.

Nick, my brother, thought he was so kind to shovel the driveway. He sure shoveled alright, all onto our car!

Brad surprised me with a beautiful picture of Christ. I love it.

We had a great Christmas and appreciate our awesome family and friends.

I'm sure there are a lot of errors and typos- but, I've had my fair share of revising and editing this semester. I'm leaving this post the way it is :).

Bring it on...

School started last week and I was actually ready to begin, believe it or not! I'm excited for this semester because I feel that the work load is going to be super beneficial because we will be applying everything we have learned more fully into the classroom. I'm also super excited because I was one of the few who get to be in the same classroom all year. I knew I was doing my student teaching with an awesome teacher in the 1st grade this spring, but I just found out that I get to be with that class every Wednesday for my practicum this fall semester. I'm so grateful because I will be able to gain a relationship with her students well before I am her official student teacher.

Let's hope if I ever get a book published I double check the spelling on the binding :) - too funny! Pricey misspelling.

I have really fallen in love with learning. Growing up and in high school I never enjoyed learning/school because I couldn't see the value in knowledge, but these last couple years I really enjoy school. I am excited to graduate, become a teacher, and continue to further my education with a masters of some kind.

We are nursery leaders and we love it. We are with the youngest nursery class and there are many times when Brad is covering his face dying in laughter and I'm trying to not look at him so I can hold it in. Those little children are too funny :). 

Summer Memories: (in no particular order, I don't want to mess with arranging the photos!)

Brad LOVES his golf ball retriever... it has paid for itself many times.

We celebrated the big 5! We went golfing, had yummy mexican food, and forced more calories down at sub-zero ice cream. It was a great evening.

 

Bullet enjoyed the petroglyphs out near the Arizona strip. No worries, this was away from the carved rocks.

This was a picture before we were finished, but we planted 5 trees and added rock and railroad ties against the back fence. We also got lattice to cover the chain link fence. We can't wait until we can get the fence walls up on the sides of our lot.

I think I painted my nails more than ever in my life this summer. It was my hobby to do while watching my addicting shows on Netflix. Neon polish is my new favorite. 

No, I am not gifted and talented - Brad made us shirts that say GT, for Garrett-Thompson! Sweet surprise.

 

A sister sent me a funny singing card and Bullet loved it.

I'm going to miss the many hours swimming and laying out with my NEON polish :)

A huge mentor in my life, Coach Kiester, sent me flowers on my birthday. She is amazing.

More summer fun

Going swimming multiple times a week with family

making strawberry freezer jam :) yum

Hiking and swimming at Red Cliffs near Leads, UT

 
Summer Trip to IDAHO!
It was a blast.

Grandma Laura was rarely found without one of these girlies all over her.

 

Boating at Blacktail. It was a WINDY day so we resorted to mostly tubing.

Some of the crew near Jackson, WY about to go white-water rafting. Hayden, Lex, Me, Brad.

 

15 people on a 10 person raft - haha. We were a little crowded but it made for fun times. The front middle, my mom, Hayden and Alexis, got a nice drenching of water through kahuna. Brad and Sean did their job on keeping the front down, that's for sure :). I'm sure Hayden thought he was swimming in the river there was so much water. Way to be tough! Heath always gives us a great ride and accompanied by the Thornton cousins always makes for good times. This first run my dad, Katie, and her boyfriend (Adam) fell out on the wimpiest rapid ever. It got nicknamed the bunny rapid. Needless to say, they were made fun of the whole trip. We also almost took out my dad and Adam by nearly crushing into a rock wall, thank goodness all of the excellent paddlers dug hard ;).

2nd trip down the river - Thornton Family with Brad and I. We had oodles of space and went on a GREAT ride.

Brad and Adam had the goal to ride Kahuna cowboy bronco style. They did excellent until....

Aunt Jenny was launched off safest spot of the boat. Who knows how CJ and Uncle Mike (very back) stayed on. They somehow landed back in the boat. Brad was strong enough to amazing hold on and not fall off. All I remember is me screaming and watching the boat as if was in slow motion. It came to an almost a complete stop as if it was stuck... sure enough I was in the river but grabbed on to the side. I saw Jenny get thrown off. I reached for her, we held on to the side of the boat, and quickly were pulled back on just in time for the next rapid, Launch-counter. We made it safe through the rest of the rapids, but somehow almost all the boat was thrown in or tossed out thanks to CJ and Uncle Mike. :)

Alexis GREW like a weed in 1 year. We are the same height now and I won't be surprised when she is taller than me.

We watched the Idaho Falls fireworks near the temple.

The Thornton family reunion was at Lava Hot Springs. We had a lot of fun. People went swimming, we went golfing, ate great food, went down the river on tubes. Alexis, Molly, Abby, and her friend went down the waterfall on the river. Crazy Girls! It was lots of fun and great to see how much all my younger cousins have grown. Thanks for the good times everyone. 

My dad took me, Brad, and Nick golfing, it was super fun and I got awesome the last 3 holes. We found more balls then we lost so that is always great :). Brad made a really nice chip-in to get a birdie. He had quite the celebratory dance afterwords that I had to take a picture.

Summer Time!

Finals ended, Netflix, Sleeping in, no homework, swimming, house projects, visitors... I love summer :).

BRAD's 27th BIRTHDAY!!!!
We went to the Piano Guys 1 yr birthday celebration. Brad won $100 gift card, a signed email conversation of the program, and a custom voice mail. Here is one of our favorite youtube videos of them... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgovv8jWETM... it was filmed outside of St. George. The concert was AMAZING... they are so talented and entertaining in person. For Brad's birthday on May 20, we had a family dinner at the park and that weekend we went to dinner and shopping for brad - I love you BG.

Signed email conversations about the program by the Piano Guys and crew.

HOUSE PROJECTS

Painting the TV wall blue

Getting shelves and knickknacks

book page wreath... painted striped curtains.... awesome clock

Entry table re-decor.... new mirrors.
My favorite find at Ross.

painted jars...
poured and swirled paint inside vases/jars from DI.

Where we met, lived, and live prints

What color should I paint the reddish wooden thing?

This is what happens when your forget to
water your flowers when they live in the
St. George dry heat. :)

Can't wait for our Idaho trip and the rest of the summer! It's been GREAT!

Going GREEN

This post is for my brother, Nick, who is always making fun of "GOING GREEN" marketing because of all the hoax and load of garbage some of it is.

This last weekend we went lawn-mowing shopping and we have been debating on whether to get a all natural push mower, totally green friendly  - it even came with a grass catcher bag :). Well, we got it because Sears told us that if you don't get the results you want just return it with not hassles. It works like a champ and we won't be returning it! It really isn't hard to push either - especially for the size of front yard we have. When we get our back yard in we might have to start to pollute the air and buy a motorized machine ;).

 Video of the FIRST push....then Bullet's poop got in the way so Brad had to stop.

Video after the length was right... it's AWESOME :)

Here is a little project that we finished recently. My crafty and talented aunt of mine sawed off the end of a table to make an entryway table from it awhile back. We had an extra table lying around so I thought I would try it. We love it and it totally works for the space. All it took was a little sawing and painting with paint we already have from the baseboards/doors (which we are still in the process of finishing).

Better get back to homework to finish my 40 page paper on analyzing and synthesizing assessments... what fun!

Life

We are loving our new home! We have a million projects stacking up... this summer is going to be fun. This weekend we installed blinds and a water softener - the water is extremely hard here. Hopefully this weekend we can finish painting the baseboards and doors white. The next major thing on the list is to get a wall/fence up. Then we have a long list of new furniture since all of our furniture was free and used. Our turquoise and mismatching table and chairs have got to go :).

Conference was great and made me realize that our ugly furniture is okay and we are just blessed to have what we have. My favorite quote this weekend... "Don't judge me because I sin differently". I googled the quote and people have already created things off of Elder Uchtdorf's bumper sticker quote. Usually "don't judge me" sayings drive me nuts, but I really liked this one. This quote made Brad and I laugh because of how true it is.

Brad got in a wreck last week and is very lucky to walk away with no injuries. It was a four car pile-up on the Boulevard. A BRAND NEW F-150, with less than 20 miles and no plates yet, rammed into a jeep, the jeep hit Brad (who was stopped in traffic), and brad hit the car in front of him. Our back bumper is totally smashed, the trunk is stuck shut, the rear lights are all bent up, and the front of the car is dinged up too. The picture doesn't give it justice. The insurance appraiser estimated $2800 worth of damage. We will see what the dealership repair place says about that.

Brad is fine, he had minor whiplash. The first car the truck hit was a Jeep that had a big rail on the back, I'm sure that took a lot of impact off. I'm sure the owner of brand new truck is going to receive a major rise of his premiums. When the driver of the truck got out Brad said he stated, "my breaks were really mushy and didn't stop in time" - yeah right!

Some of our best friends in Oklahoma, Nick and Cassie, had their twin boys! I'm soo aching to go out there! They are adorable. My sister, Joy and sister in-law, Tristan both had their baby boys this past month as well. Babies galore! 

Anyways, 4 weeks until school is out... a lot of projects ahead of me. Papers, assessment project, lesson plans, unit plans, practicum assignments, finals, praxis test, then SUMMER BREAK!

Spring Break ...

was WAY too fast!

I did enjoy every minute of it though. I worked everyday, which was great and I did absolutely nothing besides make house runs to see what was done that day, watch tv, chill with Brad, and pin on pinterest. (If you don't have a pinterest account, leave me a comment with your email and I will send you an invite. IT IS AMAZING, I love it.)

Anyways, school is great. but spring break gave me major summer fever. Only six more weeks, plus finals, plus take the Praxis test. Then I actually get a summer break with no school! HOORAY! Then two more semesters and I become an official teacher. BIG HOORAY.

Well, the house is DONE, but we have to wait for final inspections and on the bank. FHA loans take more work for the bank so the process seems like it is taking forever. If all goes well we should close this Friday (fingers crossed).

We are so excited, extremely blessed, and spoiled to have bought when the market was perfect for buyers. We are getting a 3.75% interest rate and due to home rates increasing our house was appraised for $10,000 more than what we are buying it for. We feel really fortunate and can't wait until we can fill it with kids one day. For now, its just us and bulleto.

Here are some pictures of the outside of the house but you just have to come and visit if you want to see the rest :).  (or get a facebook account.)